FujiFilm FinePix 1600's Pictures

After a successful research trip to Knowsley Safari Park where we found out that a Proto Satria Wing Mirror could indeed support a Baboon. This time we decided to find out whether a Camel could beat a Ford Fiesta in a race. As you can see the answer is no. We gave the poor camel plenty of time and stopped a few times to allow it to pass but it still was unable to corner as fast or even keep up on the straights. I doubt even bettering the Camels suspension would help, the problem was straight line speed and traction but mainly straight line speed.

As usual the Baboon section was a melee of car bits and and scampering Baboons.

On a trip tp Arley Hall I took this. I wouldn't mind but I waited a while until there was nobody in shot. I was trying out the Macro mode on the camera and the suddenly someone appered, so I changed my angle and took the shot like a bad marksman. You can see her arm on the right.

The picture is of a lamb stone sculpture around a fountain at Arley Hall.

On a trip to Werneth Low we visited a site where a restaurant used to be. It closed and then was abandoned and now it has been demolished. I never saw the restaurant and have no idea what it was called but some things still stand. What you can't see in the picture is a plaque from the AA that points to places in the distant that you might be able to see from here and some you can't with a memorial for two people called Shelmerdine, husband and wife I assume -the last of which I believe was a victim of Shipman. It's strange that when the demolish some things they just leave other things behind. Here of course we have the steps from the car park up to the restaurant. You can even see the markings for the car park with the reserved spaces just not in this picture. I have never been to the restaurant but can only imagine how it looked when it was night when you glanced out of the window as you were eating you steak in chips in the 80s. I can only imagine it would be like the view we saw when we stayed at a hotel that looked over Llandudno in a hotel that has also been demolished. It seemed so nice to see the lights of the town below was we were sat so high up as we saw the wind lash the surrounds as we sat in luxury.

On a nice and hot Fathers day what's the best thing to do? Well the answer is simple, you drive to Buxton, forget to put suncream on and stand on a block of concrete for 6 hours in the baking sun watching maniacs drive cars around an oval of tarmac. I tried my panning techniques out using the Finepix and came up with a few conclusions. The first is that I am probably not that bad a panning since the Finepix is a bit poor. The delay you get when you press the shutter is unbelievable so you can't work out of you still have the car in shot whilst you're panning or even when it has decided to start taking the picture. The amount of times when I got a nice picture of an empty track is untrue. Add to this the fact that the auto-focus kept on focusing on the fence and not the cars none of which was viewable on the monitor or the viewfinder made the whole taking pictures thing difficult.

This is the best there was unfortunately. A picture of the Hot Fords race, it was the best panned one just not the best framed as I got the official photographer in the shot too. It was all a bit mad with thrills and spills, with Samantha Taylor having a strong run in the first two rounds of the ministox until she was flipped and I suspect that the car just wasn't the same for the final. As for the UK Modified (whatever they are), they were mental. 200Bhp and 500kg so they flew and were impressive. In short it was a good day out. Better for the family than a large circuit as there is no walking though keeping up with the action is difficult and it's a pity there's no instant reply and it's a shame that I didn't have a hat.

I'm so stupid that I didn't put two and two together here. This is a sculpture called Diving Belle and at the time it didn't occur to me at all what the play on words was. It was only when I got home and started typing it into Google that I realised that there was a play on words and please believe me it was the fact that I was typing Diving Belle and not the results that helped me out.

This is one of two sculptures in Scarborough that if you do enter into Google then you'll have to add Scarborough as well to get any sense as it looks to be a local thig that Google just doesn't care about, in fact it really still wants it to make sense as it suggests you really mean Diving Bell.

Anyway, with a weekend away in the first UK seaside resort (apparently) we saw this. Aimed at boosting civic pride this was the first of two. How plonking this on the end of the quay just next to the lighthouse just does that I have no idea. I did have to find out where number two was deposited but it took me until I came home to find out as it was erected a year or two later and was a Bather Belle outside the ill-fated Woolworths. Anyway I like the sculpture but I'm not sure I liked the picture of the Bathing Belle but I suspect that's personal taste.

Off out this week to test my new FinePix 1600 at the Anson Engine Museum. Not too many good pictures unfortunately so it's not a great place to take pictures unless of course you're a hardened engine head which I think the people who turned up at the same time as us were because one of them turn around to me and said “Do you have many engines?” not really understanding the question becase it initially sounded absurd assumed he wanted to know if the museum had many engines so simply said “Yeah they have loads of different types here” thinking it was a daft question to pose only to be faced with the absurd question again “No, do you have many engines?” and that's when it hit me that to him this was not an absurd question. I was pretty sure that answering “yes I have 2, a Proton 1.6 and a Ford 1.4” was not what he was after.

Anyway back to the museum. It's an interesting place with a guide that starts up the engines and well worth a visit if you're in the area. None of the engines are huge beasts that are half as impressive as the machine in Astley Green Colliery but that would be pretty hard to beat however the guide did mentioned that they were planning to bring in a larger machine as an exhibit.

Well with none of the pictures really turning out that good, I'll have to leave you with this shot of a turn of the century Poynton. I selected Macro mode which to be honest works fantastically but I never got down close enough to the ground to actually get the feel of actually being there. Of course now Poynton looks a bit different though not greatly different to be honest.